CH 487

「……Hah. I had to go to the Marschel residence on my own, but it seems you had a lot of fun, Rei.」

That was the first thing Elena said after hearing what Rei had been up to during the day. It was now night and they were in Rei’s room, reporting the events of the day to each other.

Yellow seemed to feel the same way, rather than relaxing with Set in the stables, he was currently looking at Rei with an disatisfied expression from the back of the sofa Elena was sitting on.

「Kyu……」

At Yellow’s unhappy cry, Rei couldn’t help but ask.

「Did Yellow also want to eat some Wyvern meat?」

「Kyu!」

Of course! Yellow seemed to say with a cry. Hearing that, Rei had a wry smile on his face.

「Wyverns are also Dragons though, so you’re technically part of the same species.」

「Kyu?」

Yellow wagged his tail as if he didn’t understand what Rei was saying.

His cute gesture made Rei lose his chain of thought for a moment, but after giving a sigh, he spoke up again.

「Don’t worry. It’s true that we ate most of the Wyvern meat, but that doesn’t mean we ate all of it. There’s still enough for you and Elena to eat.」

「Kyu!」

「……But, that wasn’t the only thing I was disatisfied with.」

Yellow aside, who gave a happy cry, Elena muttered to herself before regaining her composure and continuing to speak.

「So, you’ve settled everything with regards to stripping materials?」

「Yeah. As expected of professional adventurers. Their skills with stripping materials was quite good.」

Having gained some experience in stripping and dismantling monsters, Rei had become a little more confident in his skills. However, compared to the other adventurers he saw, he was still not as good as them.

In particular, after seeing Tivia giving out instructions and everyone working together quickly and efficiently to strip materials from the monsters, Rei was convinced that he wouldn’t have been able to do that.

……In the first place though, it was only natural that Rei and Elena would be unable to do the same thing working together as there were only two of them.

「In that case, you can absorb the magic stone tomorrow.」

Nodding at Elena’s somewhat hopeful words, Rei took out the magic stones from the Misty Ring.

There were five types, Earth Crab, Bloodydile, Kobold, Spiral Rabbit, and Desert Lizardmen. Among them, there were two magic stones from the Bloodydiles and Kobolds.

With regards to the Desert Lizardmen, there was only one magic stone because Set had already absorbed one, leaving just the Death Scythe.

As for why there was no Wyvern magic stone, it was because Rei had already absorbed one before during the spring war, so it had been sold to the guild along with the rest of the materials.

「……I can’t expect much from the Kobolds.」

They probably won’t give any skills as Kobolds are on the same level of strength as Goblins. As Rei said that with such thoughts in his mind, Elena spoke up with a smile on her face.

「I’m already quite envious at your ability to increase your strength just by absorbing magic stones. ……Isn’t that right, Yellow?」

「Kyu!」

Yellow was happy to see Set, who acted as his protector, getting stronger. However, there was also a desire within the body of the small Dragon to become as strong as Set.

However, Set and Yellow were different creatures, one created by the Magic Beast Art and the other using Dragon Language magic.

It was impossible for Yellow to grow like Set and, conversely, it was impossible for Set to grow like Yellow.

「Well, that’s about it for my report. ……So, what about you? What was the head of the Marschel family like?」

Elena showed a hesitant expression for a few seconds at Rei’s words, but she eventually spoke up.

「Yes. At first glance, it looks like there’s nothing suspicious about her. As far as appearances go, it’s almost perfect. ……However.」

Pausing her words for a moment, she reached out to Yellow, who moved to her lap, before continuing.

「They probably……no, Marschel family is definitely involved with the abnormal species situation. However, if you ask me if they are the real mastermind, I don’t know.」

What passed through Elena’s mind was the maniacal, even threatening, obsession that Pree had for her gems.

Elena had only asked to see them for a moment and Pree had immediately entered a half fighting stance. Elena had no choice but to be confused at her reaction.

If the abnormal species had something to do with gems, Elena might have immediately reached the conclusion that Pree was the mastermind behind the abnormal species.

There was another thing. One other reason that Elena couldn’t say for sure that Pree was the mastermind was because there just weren’t that many people serving the Marschel family.

Their mansion was about the same size as the Silva and Levisor families, but there were surprising few signs of people. It was to the extent that Elena didn’t even know if a mansion of that size could be maintained with so few people.

Was it possible for them to cause such a large scale situation with so few people? If the Levisor family had been working with them, they could have used people from the Levisor family. But now, the Levisor family was being held down by the Silva family.

Even so, there were still eyewitness testimonies of people like the trio Rei and Elena had run into, people who seemed to be creating abnormal species, as reported by adventurers working for the Silva family.

(Although, there’s no reason why all the people working for the Marschel family would be inside the residence……)

While considering her doubts, Elena shook her head before speaking to Rei.

「Anyway, I don’t know the details, but it’s true that there are various creepy things about them. Vosk knows that as well, so he can’t act carelessly. Also, he doesn’t want to disturb Exil any more than it currently is.」

「……I see. Either way, you’re sure that the Marschel family is suspicious.」

Hearing Elena’s words, Rei gave a sigh.

There had been nothing going on when they first came for the dungeon……those were Rei’s honest thoughts.

Elena probably didn’t fully understand Rei’s feelings, but she continued on with a smile on her face.

「Well, you don’t have to worry about it too much. It’s true that the Marschel family is almost definitely involved with the abnormal species situation, but we can leave that to Vosk. After all, he’s Exil’s ruler and the head of the Silva family. We just need to continue exploring the dungeon and tell him if anything happens.」

「Yeah, that’s probably for the best.」

Perhaps Elena’s words made Rei feel slightly better, he leaned back on the sofa and gave a deep sigh as he let his body sink down.

However, the words he heard next made his body tense up for a moment.

「Give me a moment to brew you some tea.」

For some reason, ELena seemed to be in a good mood as she headed over to where the tea containers were placed in the room.

(……Is she going to brew tea? Elena? No, wait. Even in Japan, there were lessons on brewing tea. Considering that, it shouldn’t be too strange for Elena to know how to brew tea. In fact, I was also the one to brew tea on the way to Exil.)

As Rei thought to himself, he recalled that he had also been the one to serve tea on the way to Exil.

Perhaps sensing Rei’s look with her female intuition, Elena turned to face him with a somewhat proud gaze as she spoke.

「Did you think I would just leaving something I don’t know how to do like that forever? After arriving at Exil, Tufal taught me until he left, so I should be able to do it reasonably well.」

Those words were very unexpected to Rei and his eyes went unexpectedly wide as he looked at Elena.

However, it seemed like Elena didn’t find that as funny. Her gaze sharpened for a moment before she gave a slight nod.

「That’s fine. I’ll take your attitude as a challenge to me. Take a good look……I might act they way I do, but I can also do feminine things.」

Saying that as if she was about to start a duel, she reached out to a magic item that heated water before preparing the tea leaves using magic. Although Rei wouldn’t go as far as saying that her movements flowed well……it was still movements that looked practiced as she brewed the tea.

Comparing to when they had been on the way to Exil, it was fair to say that she was now a step above then.

The tea was finally served to the table, certainly entertained Rei’s taste buds.

Of course, compared to the tea that Ara brewed, which was part of her job, the taste wasn’t as good, and from the point of someone who brewed tea professionally, it was probably still a long way off. However, for Rei, the fact that Elena was the one to brew it was more than enough to make it taste good.

「It’s delicious.」

「Isn’t it? Do you now understand that I can also do feminine things?」

「Yeah, good job.」

While drinking his tea, Rei obediently praised her. Elena had an expression as if she had just achieved something as she prepared a cup of tea for herself before sitting back down on the sofa.

Drinking tea while spending time with Rei. It was an irreplaceable time for the both of them.

The mansion of the Marschel family in Exil’s west. Two men were walking through the garden towards the mansion, which was reasonably lit up with magic lights.

The two were carrying a large bag, from what it looked like, the bag seemed quite heavy.

「Anyway, why do we have to work for that crazy woman……」

One of the men suddenly said that out of frustration due to the weight of the object in the bag as well as the heat of the summer night.

「Hey, you idiot! If you say that here……」

「Is there something wrong with Master?」

Before he could finish, a voice echoed out into the surroundings.

The two men immediately stopped and looked around.

All they could see was the environment around them, illuminated by moonlight and magic lights.

However, the voice they heard was undoubtedly real and wasn’t something they had just imagined.

「W-Who……-!?」

「Please be quiet. You will cause trouble for Master. But, more importantly, you were the one who said that Master was crazy, weren’t you?」

The man who had been complaining suddenly realised a presence on his shoulder whispering into his ear.

It was only about the size of a doll, but even so, if something of this size had moved to his shoulder, he should have noticed it.

However, he hadn’t noticed a thing until it whispered into his ear.

「Did you want to hurt Master?」

Along with those words, the doll raised its hand……and the man suddenly noticed that it was holding a knife.

Normally, if the man had encountered someone wielding a kitchen knife, he would have been able to deal with them. However, the doll was able to get this close to him without him noticing, so the only thing he could do was try to avoid it.

「Shi-!」

Letting go of the bag he was holding, he shook the doll off his shoulder and pulled out the sword at his waist as he tried to strike it down.

That was what he had been planning to do, but the doll just jumped to avoid the hand that tried to brush it away before trying to stab the man in the eye with the tip of the knife it held.

「Stop-!」

The other man swung his still sheathed sword.

As expected, the doll judged that it couldn’t avoid the attack and pushed off against the incoming sheath, jumping high into the air.

「Shit-!」

Seeing that his life was in danger, the man hurried tried to reach for the sword at his waist.

「Can we stop here?」

A familiar voice echoed out.

The person who appeared was a woman in her 40’s with gems all over her body. It was Pree Marschel, the current head of the Marschel family.

「Seriously, I don’t want any bloodshed on my property.」

「-!?」

Your doll was the reason for all this! The man wanted to scream out but was stopped by the other man, who grabbed his arm and shook his head.

Any further disturbances won’t be of any help. After being told that silently, the man bit his lips in frustration before calling out to Pree, who was holding her doll.

「So, where do we put the stuff.」

「Oh, take him to the underground laboratory. ……You haven’t killed them yet, have you?」

「Of course. Even though they had just lost their arm, they still gave us some trouble. They’re unconscious now though.」

「……Huh. That’s quite lively. Well, what colour with the new sacrifice shine? Blue? Green? Red? ……Please entertain me. Fufu, maybe this is another guiding sign of the Goddess of Holy Light.」

Muttering to her self, Pree looked to the bag with an enchanted gaze.

The two men watched on with faint expressions of disgust as they carried the bag into the mansion without saying anything.